The judge ordered Samsung to hand over their upcoming products, despite such products already having been publicized, so that details about them can be entered as evidence. Web magazine articles are not suitable to the task - they need the real thing (so take off the tinfoil hats).

Further, Apple needs to know design details about upcoming products so they can ask the court for an injunction against their sale before they hit the market, rather than after. Apple's position is that they have been ripped off, and they want the court to stop the culprit from profiting by it. If Samsung's new batch of phones could escape the current suit without any relevant changes from the current models, what would be the point of suing? Apple can't ask the court simply to order Samsung out of the business. They need to know specifically which models (are going to) look how much like an iPhone. That's just how legal action works.

None of that was commentary on the actual merits, but I will say that while I don't think Apple should be the only company allowed to make a wedge that's mostly just a screen, I do think Samsung and Android are lazily copycatting. Microsoft makes software for screen-wedge-phones with a significantly different interface, while other Android phones have used a variety of physical inputs, Blackberry remains distinctive, and the Palm Pre is truly differentiated both in software and hardware as the rare vertical slider with a full keyboard. No one has to make something that's just like an iPhone for functionality's sake.

I do think Samsung and Android are lazily copycatting... No one has to make something that's just like an iPhone for functionality's sake.

I don't think so.

The LG Prada was winning design awards months before the Iphone was first introduced. The Iphone design is uncannily similar to the Prada. So, if anyone has been copied, it is Apple copying LG.

However, I doubt that Apple copied the Prada design entirely, as most design elements are fairly obvious and minimal with current touchscreen devices -- you have a touchscreen and a bezel. You might have an actual button or two. That's it. That's the whole idea behind touchscreen devices.

So, Samsung is not really copying anyone. It is just designing what is obvious.